Stratigraphy and micropaleontology of the oligocene Cyrene-Apollonia highway section (Cyrenaica, NE Libya): archaeological implications.

The application of micropaleontology to scientific archaeology has been developed in different areas around the globe by using a wide range of rnicrofossil groups in various types of archaeological contexts and materials (buildings, monuments, statues, paintings, ceramics, stone tools, baskets, mortars, fossil faeces, human remains) and contexts. These can provide useful information that is applicable to the interpretation of the environment and man's activities in the past (Quinn, 1997: Quinn and Day, 2007). A seemingly obvious application of micropaleontology to archaeology is the biostratigraphic dating of archaeological materials, with traditional biostratigraphic techniques being applied to microfossils contained within building materials. In such cases, micropaleontology can be used to both date the deposits from which the raw material was obtained and determine the origin and provenance of ancient artefacts. The success or resolution of micropaleontological provenance studies of archaeological buildings and monuments is, however, dependent upon several factors, including the nature of the artefacts and their microfossil assemblages, as well as the raw material diversity of the study area.